Making it in the Big City

I'm having a rough week, fellow bloggers. At a crossroads, and don't know which way to go. Feeling a bit crapped on. Feel like yelling out, "It's just not fair!", but know it won't change anything.
As you know, I'm one of the 700,000 people who lost their jobs in January. I'm thankful to have found another one, but it comes at a great decrease in salary. My husband worked a lot of overtime to make up for the shortfall, but the City of Chicago has recently stopped paying overtime. With the recent increase in property taxes, we've now reached a point where it's very hard to afford our home. We live in a modest home, in a modest area. Nothing fancy. No marble bathrooms. No 3 acres. We're told that our property value hasn't declined, but foreclosed homes are selling like hotcakes around here, for far less than we owe on ours. If we sell, we may walk away with nothing. That's if we can sell at all.
If we stay, we will run into problems the next time something major comes up - maybe a plumbing emergency, or a car problem. We are truly in that unpleasant situation where we can't afford to stay, and can't afford to leave.
This is my first home. As in, I lived in apartments my whole life. Moved around a lot. I don't want to do that to my kids. We've been here almost 5 years, and that's the longest I've ever lived in one place. I played by the rules, did my part, and still come out behind. The Making Home Affordable program seemed like it might help us. But you know what? We're $11 under their criteria to qualify. Eleven. Fucking. Dollars.

If we could sell, and move into something smaller, more affordable, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

But it's never that simple, is it?

She's WHAT?!

Yesterday I was informed by a parent at the school that a girl in Daimean’s 6th grade class is going around telling people she’s pregnant. So I called the school and talked to the teacher and she said, “Oh, she’s still saying that?!”

STILL?????

It’s going to be a long school year.

Turns out the teacher has already made the girl's mother aware of this, and thought the whole thing had been put behind them. Good lord.